Star Wars All Along the Watchtower

Anakin Skywalker always wonders what it'd be like to join the army. Specifically the Judicial Evolutionary Defenders of Ideals group. The JEDI is a special branch of the military that walks the thin line between Peace Core and the regular military. They are defenders of justice and certain ideals, not just normal soldiers. They are peacekeepers and do not fight in combat often.

His mother strongly disagrees with any suggestion that he join the army, whether it come from members of their town or from himself. It drives Anakin insane to hear his mother tell him she will never allow him to join the army. It stings deeply to know she doesn't believe in his dream. Anakin doesn't want to become a salesman or work in some dingy office. He doesn't want to be a mechanic or an artist either.

So he throws himself into schoolwork and fixing up various appliances and cars. In his downtime, to distract from dreaming of joining up, he draws. He draws his mother, he draws their tiny apartment, he draws the courtyard of their apartment complex, Watto's pawn shop, his classrooms at school, the cars and other little things he fixes up, their neighbors, the various animals that wander around, and everything he sees. When he starts drawing military uniforms and different types of guns, however, Anakin doesn't know what to do with himself.

In 1961, he graduates from high school, dressed in the ugly red gown and cap while his mother fusses over him. They go out to eat since it's a special occasion—Anakin ditching the cap and gown as quickly as he can. He doubts he would have kept the stupid things on even if they had been in his favorite color, yellow.

* * *

How Anakin manages to win a scholarship to the university, he'll never even know. All he did was try to paint something once and apparently somebody thought it was worth something. Next thing he knows, he's taking a bus to the state college and staring up at the buildings around him.

Where did his summer go and why can't he have it back?

* * *

Anakin's roommate isn't so bad. He's a bit of a pothead, which is kind of funny. The boy has freckles all over his face, red curly hair, and a goofy grin on his face most of the time. He introduces himself as Roger, and claims he likes to play pinball. Anakin vaguely remembers playing pinball a couple times when he was a kid and follows Roger to the common room.

The next four years are spent staying up late to do his classwork, passing up on smoking pot every single time Roger offers, drawing and painting, and playing pinball. He manages to scrounge up some money for his mother to come up for his graduation in 1965. Anakin proudly holds up his art degree and a brochure for the military to his mother.

* * *

Anakin sits in a small office on the grounds of the training camp. He's done something wrong, he knows it. Getting his hair cut off and suffering through boot camp was all for nothing. They'll kick him out before he can even put himself to use. His mother only let him join up because of the draft, but now he'll have to go back to working for Watto and do nothing with his life.

As the anger and shame and fear begins to reach a boiling point inside Anakin, the door opens behind him and three men walk in. One is the head of the camp. The other two are entirely unfamiliar and dressed strangely. Tunics, belts around their middle, knee boots and pants underneath the tunics, long sleeves under the tunics… Anakin has never seen anything like it. He stands and salutes the head as he'd been trained. "At ease, Skywalker. These two men are from the JEDI group. Heard of that group?"

"Yes, sir." Internally, Anakin's head is spinning while he processes this. The JEDI group. The _JEDI_ group. Now that he sees the men, he faintly recognizes them as the two men who'd been observing the camp for the past two weeks.

"They've been keeping an eye on some of you for the last couple of weeks. They want to recruit you. Master Jinn?"

The man with longer hair steps forward and bows, which confuses Anakin. What is this, Japan? Since when do people bow in the military? "Private Skywalker, Knight Kenobi and I have been observing you for some time and we believe you would be a perfect fit for the JEDI."

Anakin uses every ounce of willpower to keep from grinning.

* * *

He sits in the back of a car with the other man, who'd been introduced as Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, as they drive to some unknown location in the middle of Texas. It's barren, dry, and dusty all around them. The road is deserted. Anakin squints at the horizon when something catches his eye—a shape, jagged at the tops as it comes closer in view. "What's that?"

Obi-Wan answers. "The Temple. It's in the middle of manmade mountains and has been there for decades. It's our base," he clarifies, when Anakin's brow furrows.

"Oh. Why's it called a temple?"

"It's a ziggurat, so it looks like one. Complete with spires. Master, what will the Council think of him?"

"The council?" Anakin asks. These people are weird.

"Yes, Private, the Council makes all the higher decisions within the JEDI group."

Anakin suddenly feels very uncomfortable and wants to be back home with his mother. "Is this… is this a cult or something? I don't have to go through any rituals like walking on hot coals or drinking poison, do I?"

Obi-Wan looks startled at that accusation while Master Qui-Gon Jinn merely chuckles. "No, this is not a cult. You'll find the members of the JEDI group are different from what you are used to, but we mean you no harm. I'm afraid some of us may be a bit difficult to warm up to you for a while, since their view of the outside world is somewhat… sour. I'm surprised I was able to convince Obi-Wan to come with me to fetch recruits, but he has always been loyal and willing to follow me."

Anakin glances over at Obi-Wan, who gives him a small smile. The Private sinks lower in his seat, the discomfort growing. "So… what do you mean they're not used to outside people? Why didn't he want to come with you?" Anakin gestures to his right at Obi-Wan.

"Ah, the government certainly does not agree with our methods. Most of us were raised from infancy in the Temple. Obi-Wan, for example, has never met his family. To him, the JEDI group is his family."

"The JEDI group isn't military? What do you mean he's never met his family?"

"Partially, but not completely," Obi-Wan replies. "And no, I have never met my biological family. Apparently, I have an elder brother as well as two parents, but as Qui-Gon says, the JEDI are my family."

"You people are nuts. This stuff isn't normal. People don't live like this unless they're in a cult. You're definitely crazy," Anakin glares at Obi-Wan as he says this. "If I'd known this is what I'd be signing up for, I would have spit on you."

Obi-Wan looks away. "Qui-Gon said outsiders wouldn't like us," he says quietly. "I didn't believe you, Master, forgive me."

_Why can't this stupid car explode? I'd rather take my chances with the vultures than spend another second with these psychos._

Of course, they're already driving up one of the mountains now. Of course. Just his luck. "You both are psycho. Have you been smoking pot?"

Obi-Wan looks extremely confused. "Why would we smoke a pot? It damages the pot and blackens the bottom of it. Besides that, what does it have to do with us being psychopathic?"

Anakin groans and smacks his forehead with his hand. "Never mind."

* * *

Anakin realizes Obi-Wan is shorter than him and pretty much the most harmless person he's ever met. He also realizes a lot of people in this Temple have British accents but don't even realize it—most of all Obi-Wan, who knows where Great Britain is but knows virtually nothing about it. He's in Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's quarters now, and it reminds him of his college dorm room. Less posters of Elvis, though. "So, you've never been outside the Temple before you went with er… Master Jinn to the boot camp?" It feels incredibly off to say 'Master', but apparently that's Qui-Gon Jinn's title so he sticks to it. Master, Knight, Padawan, Initiate, Youngling… strange, strange.

Obi-Wan shakes his head when he looks over at Anakin, away from where he's making tea. The boy is totally foreign to him in the way he acts and dresses. It's a little insulting how disbelieving he is when Obi-Wan tells him about the Temple, but he shrugs it off since Qui-Gon had told him the outsiders don't know any better. "Not that far outside. I've been outside on the mountains and in the desert-"

"Texas doesn't have a desert."

The Knight suppresses the urge to glare at Anakin for interrupting him. "But I've never been around outsiders before. It was an… eye-opening experience, I suppose."

"You're not exactly peachy to be around either."

"At least our feelings for each other are mutual." He hands Anakin a cup of tea and goes to sit on his sleep couch. "What did you mean by smoking a pot earlier?"

"Pot is a nickname for marijuana."

"What is marijuana?"

"Drug. You smoke it."

"How do you smoke a drug? Do you burn it like incense?"

"You really need to get out more," Anakin mutters. "Like a cigarette." He almost sighs when Obi-Wan gives him a blank look. "Okay, yeah, like incense. Only you put it in your mouth, inhale, and then blow out the smoke."

"That sounds incredibly pointless. Why would you smoke drugs?"

"I don't know. I guess people do it for the same reason they drink. Because they can and maybe they want to forget something."

"How can you forget something by doing that? It may cloud your mind, but the memories will come back once the fog goes away."

He shrugs. "I guess at least for that bit of time, it's worth it. I don't know, I've never done that kind of thing. My college roommate was a complete pothead though."

"My faith in you has been restored a little." Obi-Wan's mouth twitches in amusement.

Anakin smiles. "I'm a good boy. My mom would beat me if I ever did drugs."

"What is college like?"

"You really want to know about college?"

"We have at least two hours to kill while Qui-Gon speaks with the Council, so yes, I want to know about college."

"Alright, fine. What do you want to know?"

"How do you get into college? Do you have to pass trials?"

"No, you just have to graduate high school and pay for college."

"So high school comes before college?"

"Yeah, it's elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school, then college. Some people can't afford to go to college though."

"But college is part of a person's education. Why should someone have to pay to be educated?"

When Obi-Wan puts it that way, it seems pretty unfair. "I don't know, that's just the way it works. You don't always have to pay, though. You can get scholarships. If you get a big enough scholarship, you can get full-ride and not have to pay anything. That's how I got to go."

Obi-Wan seems rather fascinated as Anakin continues to talk, asking all sorts of questions and gazing with interest while the boy tells about life in the outside world. "Your life is so different from mine."

"You took the words right out of my mouth. So what's the JEDI group like?"

"Well… there aren't a lot of us. We are trained from early childhood by the Code-"

"What is the Code?"

The young Knight thinks for a moment, unsure of how much to divulge to the future member of the group. "The mantra for Jedi is

'_There is no emotion, there is peace._

_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._

_There is no passion, there is serenity._

_There is no chaos, there is harmony._

_There is no death, there is Heaven.'_"

* * *

Obi-Wan's mantra rings in his ears as Anakin stands between the man and Master Jinn before the JEDI Council. The people in the seats are all very different in appearance. Obi-Wan had shown him pictures of each of the members beforehand. Plo Koon's face is marred by scars from cuts and burns, skin raised in various places. Shaak Ti's hair is pure white with blue stripes through it, pulled back with the ends over her shoulders, and her face has white painted designs. Ki-Adi Mundi's forehead is high and his white hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, similar to some of the activists he'd seen lately who grew out their hair and wore it in ponytails. Yoda's hair is very thin, in wisps on his head, and his skin is… green. The man is the smallest Anakin has ever seen, ears pointed and he looks extremely old. Mace Windu, next to Yoda, has a shaved head and has a very intense stare. It unnerves Anakin.

"Master Qui-Gon, train this boy alongside Obi-Wan, you will."

"Yes, Master." Qui-Gon bows respectfully.

"You must train him quickly. Because of the government's draft, you may be sent to Vietnam to negotiate and even fight."

Obi-Wan seems unsure as he tenses next to Anakin, and the Private feels a bit sorry for the man. Obi-Wan is far too gentle and kind a person to go fight in 'nam like so many other men who had been sent there.

* * *

"So how do you train me? I can already use a gun, reload it, and shoot targets perfectly on the first shot."

From where Obi-Wan is stretching, the man suddenly leaps into the air and flips, landing without so much as a grunt on his hands, legs pressed together and pointed up. "Various ways. You'll need guerilla warfare tactics in your head before you can properly fight. And you'll need to learn fighting styles so you can pick one that best suits your personality. I think a game of sabacc would be a good first test to see which fighting style would fit you."

"Very good, Obi-Wan. However, I think we should try normal fighting for now, and sabacc later. I believe he may need to release some of his extra energy."

"What's sabacc? What fighting styles are you talking about?"

"Shii-Cho, Makashi, Djem So/Shien, Soresu, Ataru, Niman, Juyo/Vaapad. You know, those fighting styles. And sabacc is a game. Often used to get a read of another's personality."

"I know you think you're explaining yourself, but you're really not."

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan seem to be a tag team, as the taller man now steps forward. "Names of fighting styles used by the JEDI group. Now, I would like you to try and hit me."

Anakin blinks, unsure if he heard the man correctly. "… What?"

"Try to hit me."

"I really hope you can stop me and that's why you're saying 'try'." The younger man hesitantly winds up, pulling back his fist before stepping forward and punching in one quick motion. It takes him a moment to register Qui-Gon's almost painful grasp on his wrist. Anakin would be ashamed if his mother could read his mind at that point, seeing as a string of curse words have been unleashed mentally out of disbelief. "Any chance you could teach me how to do that?"

* * *

Anakin drifts in and out of sleep, trying to get comfortable on the "sleep couch". He peers through the dark at Obi-Wan, who is sound asleep on his own couch across the room.

He can't decide whether he'd rather be here, in the quiet Temple, or on the top bunk in the barracks at boot camp, surrounded by his comrades who are staring at whichever dirty magazine they'd gotten hold of.

He thinks of his mother, who has probably gotten his last letter by now. He'll need to ask Obi-Wan for some paper and a pen tomorrow so he can update her on his newest assignment. Anakin wonders how she would react to him being part of the JEDI group.

* * *

When Anakin wakes the next morning, he's surprised to find it to be before dawn and the two JEDI only just getting ready. "Good morning, Anakin," Obi-Wan greets warmly as he pulls on his tunic. "Did you sleep well?"

He's doubly surprised to find that yes, he did sleep well on the couch. "Yeah, I actually did. How about you?"

"I slept fine. Would you like tea?"

"Obi-Wan, I believe he would prefer coffee for now."

"He's right, coffee would be great."

It's pleasant to have warm water for his shower and fresh coffee waiting in a mug on the kitchen counter. It's also pleasant to hear Obi-Wan tell him they'll essentially drift around the Temple for the day, since apparently Anakin needs a break from the conformity pressed on him in the ordinary military.

It's pleasant to have something other than cafeteria food for breakfast—Qui-Gon tells him nearly all of the food is grown within the Temple and very little is imported. Anakin feels he might get used to living with the JEDI.

"I've been thinking that the fighting style for you would be Djem So. No other person currently uses Vaapad besides Master Windu, but only he has the capacity to handle such a dangerous form. Ataru doesn't quite fit you like Djem So, because your personality is aggressive."

"Obi-Wan, none of those things mean anything to me." Anakin puts a hand on the man's shoulder and pats it, as though he's explaining something to a child.

"Still?"

"Still."

* * *

Obi-Wan eagerly shows his new friend around the Temple, amazing Anakin many times at the vast rooms they pad through. The Room of a Thousand Fountains—Qui-Gon indulged him and let Anakin count to see if there really were a thousand fountains—particularly fascinates the young man. Next, Obi-Wan shows Anakin the "Archives", which is pretty much the biggest library Anakin has ever seen. It's even bigger than the library at his old college.

And it's really pretty cool. Obi-Wan is practically drooling as he takes Anakin quietly through the isles of shelves—Qui-Gon had gone off to talk with a friend of his—showing him in whispers all the old and new books alike. There is dust on some of them, but they are all worn from being read over and over again. "So, how long has the JEDI group been around?" Anakin murmurs as Obi-Wan takes him past a table, both Anakin and the occupants of said table staring curiously at each other. They're a small group of kids, no more than fourteen years old. The boys' hair is strangely cropped, with a small ponytail in the back and a long braid down their right shoulder. The girls' hair is a bit longer, down to their ears, but still with the small plait.

"Oh, since the early days of the United States. We derived much of our way of life from cultures around the world, particularly eastern Asia. By the way, you'll need some tunics soon."

He frowns at the thought. "I doubt I could get used to wearing a dress with tall boots." He winces then when Obi-Wan gives him a baleful glare.

"It's a _tunic_," he practically spits out, spinning around and striding angrily ahead. "Come on, I'll show you the agricultural rooms."

Anakin follows, feeling a bit guilty. After all, Obi-Wan had been very kind to him this entire time and he'd been continually insulting towards how his new friend lives. Not exactly the right foot to start off on. His guilt increases tenfold when Obi-Wan stops giving facts so readily like he had earlier, instead giving curt replies to Anakin's half-hearted questions until they step into the hall again. "You're mad at me."

Obi-Wan visibly wilts, sighing and crossing his arms as he stops by a pillar in the large hallway. "I am, even though I shouldn't. Forgive me for my inhospitable behavior to you, Anakin."

Well. That's not the response he was preparing himself for. "Uh… you're forgiven?" Anakin shakes his head to clear it. "It's my fault. I mean… I do know the difference between a tunic and a dress. I was just being a dick about it."

"Why?" Obi-Wan inquires coolly, one eyebrow raised.

He isn't prepared to be questioned about it either. Now though, Anakin does wonder why. Oh. Right. "I like getting under people's skin and pissing them off. My mom always told me to quit testing my limits and just accept what I've been given."

Alright, so Anakin decides he no longer has Obi-Wan pegged as innocent or blindly kind. The man smirks under his beard, causing Anakin to scowl. "You should listen to your mother more often. However, don't always accept. Find a balance between your desire to aggravate others and to follow your mother's advice."

"What are you, my teacher?"

A shadow falls over Obi-Wan's eyes as he looks away. "I might be," he mutters, tugging at the sleeve of his tunic before straightening and plastering a definitely fake smile on his face, suggesting they head to the meditation chambers next. Which causes Anakin to pause, because that smile is the same one Obi-Wan's been using all morning. Not good.


End file.

Star Wars, Angst, Friendship